Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the Fly Fishing Forum forums, you must first register.
Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

Home Waters

Your home waters

Current Favorite Fly

If you only had one... (change anytime)

Log-in

User Name

Remember Me?

Password

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.

Additional Options

Miscellaneous Options

Automatically parse links in text

Automatically embed media (requires automatic parsing of links in text to be on).

Rate Thread

If you like, you can add a score for this thread.

Topic Review (Newest First)

01-25-2009 08:33 AM

JR SPEY

Just a quick update. My Spotters from Australia did not arrive before my trip to Andros so I will not be able to report on them, at least as regards flats fishing, until later in the year. I ended up using an old pair (ten years or more) of prescription Specialized Eyeware SE1000 glasses that were several prescriptions ago and they worked fine. Obviously, the changes in my prescription are tiny because I had very little trouble spotting fish. The lens color would best be described as dark amber.

01-09-2009 04:07 PM

JR SPEY

Just be careful when you buy the cheap open water glasses. The one thing sometimes forgotten is we also need these glasses to shield us from both UVA and UVB rays. Cheap glasses rarely have the 99-100% blockage and that's what you need if you use them any more often than just occasionally. Cataracts and other eye problems are not worth the small amount of $$$ saved by buying too cheaply.

01-09-2009 03:52 PM

blindcurvw

Quote:

Originally Posted by juro

But everyones eyes (and perceptions) differ. A happy angler is one who has found something that works for him/her.

Well summarized Juro

Thanks to all for the feedback and seems the opinion of the forum mimics the marketing press, for the most part.

Conclusion: Primary Glasses (shallow water) - Buy another pair of smith frames in Copper tint and buy after market side shields (if I can find them, still looking). Seem to be a great value (cost vs. performance) and very common amongst fisherman.

Secondary Glasses (open waters)- Buy a decent pair of grey lens in a light weight sport frame (side glare less of a concern/impairment). Maybe pick up some cheap $20 glasses in green and blue for experimentation...

Now the tough part... Convincing my wife that I really need to spend what will likely be >$200 bucks on a pair(s) of sunglasses

01-09-2009 01:53 PM

juro

In the end, the lenses just filter light and the retinas stimulate on photon arrival. Impulses are sent down an optic nerve but what you "see" is conjured by the brain.

I am convinced that people who are great fish spotters are most equipped on the back end within the gray matter regardless of the color of their lenses.

On topic, most of the time when I am spotting by color there is little to no shape recognition to leverage. It's entirely possible that shape spotters are seeing nothing at all in these cases without color recognition. I know it's a handicap for me *under those conditions* to have anything but the most pronounced color recognition.

But everyones eyes (and perceptions) differ. A happy angler is one who has found something that works for him/her.

01-09-2009 01:08 PM

Smolt

Action Optics "Fishbone" model has all the charateristics you have described. I have four pairs of these glasses in different lenses. The Fishbone model has been discontinued and you can buy them for as low at $30, if you can find them -- they sold for $159 when new to the market. I like the Copper and Brown lenes the best, but have grey and yellow as well. Do a Google search and an eBay search to see what you can find.

01-09-2009 12:26 PM

JR SPEY

Quote:

Originally Posted by juro

I haven't tried green yet but own both (high-end) grey and copper. My retinas disagree that copper is unilaterally better than grey as a blanket statement.

Copper is better for contrast flats spotting situations. Grey is better when color is key and contrast is not the visual queue.

Could be the northern flats striper angler faces more color-based situations than the tropical angler, although I have taken advantage of / suffered from both in either situation.

I have been in situations where the subtle green color tones of the slow-cruising slack current ghostly bones over marl are the only clue of their presence, but it's much more common for me to queue on movement by color on Monomoy's grainy sand flats.

I'm curious to try the greens but not expecting quite the returns the hype would lead us to believe.

I've tried grey in the tropics and haven't found it effective at all. Most of the experts suggest grey for bluewater angling, but it could be that they'll work on the striper flats. When I was on the Cape last June I only had my copper Smith Optics and they seemed to be fine. Perhaps this year I'll bring my grey lens pair and see if there is any difference.

This discussion points out another problem. Having multiple pairs of glasses for different conditions can get seriously expensive and can become almost prohibitively expensive if you require prescription glasses. My older pairs, like the greys I mentioned above, are from an older prescription so although I use them on occasion, they are really backups now as I don't have quite 20/20 vision with them.

01-09-2009 08:45 AM

Swalt

I have to get the prescription glasses and can't get the wraparounds, because of the curvature of the lenses, so I use side shields to cut the glare. You can get side shields at peepers.com. They have some from Costa, not sure if you can get them at the Costa site or not. They will not fit over wide glasses arms.

I have used action optics and costas and like them both. I also use caccoon fitovers over my regular glasses at times. I use the copper for shallow water/flats fishing. If its very bright I have used the copper/brown caccoons over top of copper lenses. Sometimes copper is just not enough for me on very bright days. It varries for me. Somedays one combination works best somedays another.

01-08-2009 03:54 PM

juro

I haven't tried green yet but own both (high-end) grey and copper. My retinas disagree that copper is unilaterally better than grey as a blanket statement.

Copper is better for contrast flats spotting situations. Grey is better when color is key and contrast is not the visual queue.

Could be the northern flats striper angler faces more color-based situations than the tropical angler, although I have taken advantage of / suffered from both in either situation.

I have been in situations where the subtle green color tones of the slow-cruising slack current ghostly bones over marl are the only clue of their presence, but it's much more common for me to queue on movement by color on Monomoy's grainy sand flats.

I'm curious to try the greens but not expecting quite the returns the hype would lead us to believe.

01-08-2009 03:36 PM

JR SPEY

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paxton

My advise is to go to a reputatable optician/optometrist and have them order for you.........mine said that he would replaceme them for no cost if i was disatisfied with the quality.
No need...they are perfect!

Ron

I tried that, too. The problem was that they couldn't offer what I wanted. If all you want is a polarized brown or grey lens they have no problem doing that. My Smith Optics had polychromatic polarized copper lenses and that was the minimum I wanted. Copper lenses are far superior for spotting fish in flats' fishing situations than grey and quite a bit better than the garden variety brown. Better yet, are some of the newer green tint lenses, but I couldn't find those available in a RX yet. The closest I came was the Spotters which is why I ordered them. You might be in luck if you find an optician who fishes, but otherwise I found that they often had no idea what I was asking and couldn't understand the need for what I wanted.

01-07-2009 08:14 PM

Paxton

I've owned a pair of Costa Del Mar glasses for 4 years Love them! They are a full wrap around design but the lense does wrap around...the frame sides do, are plastic with insert plastic shields.........they work well for my heavy RX as there is no distortion by the lense. Fits and self adjusts to the shape of your face after a couple of wearings.........light is totally blocked out and the fact that the lense itself doesn't wrap reduces foggging up on long walks as well as sweat or sun tan lotion getting on the lenses..
My lenses are grey.........you are right...there is no distortion of color...I do 90% salt....never had a problem spotting fish although I haven't used other colored lenses to compare.
re polarization and head tilt.......according the optomologist I orderred them from,..."head tilt to increase polarization effect is not necessary if whoever makes them, lines up the lenses properly"........he made a notation on the order, and i never have to tilt my head.
My advise is to go to a reputatable optician/optometrist and have them order for you.........mine said that he would replaceme them for no cost if i was disatisfied with the quality.
No need...they are perfect!

Ron

01-07-2009 04:47 PM

Smcdermott

I got the side shields from LLBean 6 or 7 years ago. Don't see them on their website but a quick google search produced a few results. The ones I have use a flexible core with a cloth casing and are very comfortable.

Sean

01-07-2009 04:39 PM

BigDave

Most of the new premium lenses have an anti-reflective coating on the inside of the lens that works pretty well for blocking glare from the back.

I have to agree that tilting the head can make a major difference when sight fishing no matter how well your glasses fit.

Dark bronze/brown lenses work well for my eyes in most environments. The HCL bronze color from MJ is a favorite.

Lightweight is key if you are going to have them on 10hrs/day...

01-07-2009 03:09 PM

blindcurvw

Thanks for feedback so far...

Luckily I don't need RX, yet!

Smcdermott - where did you get the after-market shields? I haven't seen those yet. This might be the solution I'm after. Gives flexibility to put on/off as needed.

JR SPEY - The pair I had were Smith Action optics as well. Hope your Andros trip is fruitful and definitely interested in feedback on the spotters. I'll google spotters next chance I get and check them out.

jfbasser - Agree, tilting your head technique can help 'tweak' the last bit of glare reduction from the surface (water, road, etc..) you are looking at. This is because of the quality of polarizer, orientation of lenses w/ frame/eye, and some other environmental/physical factors related to the alignment of electro-magnetic fields of light the w/ respect to the orientation of the polarizer (I think... My photon-optics skills are a bit a rusty).

The main concern I have is over reflections on the inside surface of the lens (between eye ball and lens). This reflected light isn't affected by the polarizers the same way so tilting head won't work. Wearing a broad rim hat, fat frames that seal up to your skin, and other tricks help but aren't always practical/functional.

01-06-2009 12:18 PM

JR SPEY

I accidentally left my Rx Smith Optics in my room at a lodge when permit fishing this past October. I spent the next two months trying to find another pair that I liked. I went through a bunch of companies and wasn't pleased with any of what they offered. I then was going to resort to Smith Optics again, but I couldn't get them to answer the phone in person nor return my voicemails. I ended up ordering a pair of Spotters, from Australia. They come highly recommended by a couple of fishermen whose opinion I respect. They are quite a bit more expensive than Smith, Maui, etc., but if they are better for spotting fish they'll be worth it. I'm hoping they'll be here for a trip to Andros in two weeks. If they come before I leave I'll report back on them here when I return.

01-06-2009 12:05 PM

Smcdermott

Script lenses? Reason I ask is that I just went through this and getting script lenses was a bit more of a challenge at least for glass lenses that I wanted for scratch resistence in the salt. Tough to get a wrap lense with a heavy script. I ended up with Mauis and use a pair of aftermarket side shields to keep the glare from coming in the sides.

This thread has more than 15 replies.
Click here to review the whole thread.